


Before the Dawn

by jimboppa (caramiro)



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-11
Updated: 2014-05-11
Packaged: 2018-01-24 08:25:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1598204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramiro/pseuds/jimboppa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a barker for a jeepney, Jinseo hears several stories of heartbreak in a span of seven days</p>
            </blockquote>





	Before the Dawn

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Dungawin ang Araw](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1569401) by [jimboppa (caramiro)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramiro/pseuds/jimboppa). 



> A jeepney is the most common form of public transportation in the Philippines.Jeepneys can be found at designated jeepney stands with a dispatcher/barker present usually calling out the destination to usher in passengers. The routes are painted on the sides and below the windshield of the vehicles. They are often manned by two people, the driver and the conductor (also informally called the "backride"). If available, the conductor manages passengers and takes care of fare collection. In most vehicles, however, only the driver is present, and passengers have to ask the adjacent passengers to pass on the fare to the driver. The driver in this case, relies on the honesty of the passengers in paying their fare.
> 
> For the sake of fic writing purposes, I made Jinseo both a barker and conductor.

  _Bumaba ako sa jeepney_  
_Kung saan tayo'y dating magkatabi_  
_Magkahalik ang pisngi nating dalawa_  
_Nating dalawa_  
-[Jeepney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSuBWHffgY&feature=kp), Sponge Cola

 

 

 

 

**MONDAY**

Jinseo curses as he leaves his university to make it on time for community service as a jeepney barker in the neighboring university. As per school requirements, every junior is required to take philosophy, and one of the class requirements is to do the junior engagement program. This involves doing menial jobs that people would rather avoid as much as possible. As annoying as it is to have to give up several hours of his days to do this, he has to comply if he wants to graduate the following school year, or at least pass his philosophy class. Jinseo supposes there there are small blessings in life. At least he won’t be a mall janitor like Nam will be, but his only worry is that his high school friends from the university he’ll be “working for” might recognize him.

He lets out a sigh of relief as he makes it there at the same time as Alex, the driver he’ll be helping out and riding with today.

“You ready to lose your voice, kid?” Alex asks, putting an arm around his shoulders.

Jinseo chuckles. “I’d rather not since I have oral exams tomorrow, but for you Alex, fine. I will.”

“That’s the spirit!” Alex cheers as he gets in the driver’s seat and starts the engine, which Jinseo takes as his cue to start yelling.

It is a lot more fun than he expected it to be. The rush of people making a mad dash for the jeepneys and him shouting out their stop is exciting, considering it’s his first time doing it. He watches as the jeepney fills up.

“Two more here!” he shouts, pointing to the jeepney. “Two more!”

Just as he yells, he spies two high school kids walking, one dressed in the uniform from his university’s high school and the other dressed in the uniform of the all-girls’ school next door. He surmises they’re a couple from how the guy has a possessive arm around the girl’s waist.

The girl is constantly looking around as they walk, almost as if she’s looking for something. She looks anywhere but at her boyfriend. As they approach the jeepney Jinseo’s manning, the girl almost trips over a rock, throwing her stuff at Jinseo’s feet.

“Be careful,” Jinseo says as he helps the couple pick up the girl’s things. “Are you taking this jeep?” he adds once he’s handed them everything.

“Yep,” the guy replies as he hands over the payment. “To Ascal, for two.”

Jinseo nods as he counts the money, hoping that his math was accurate, given how bad at numbers he is.

“Yo, Jinseo! Hop in already!” Alex shouts from the driver’s seat. “Unless you’d rather hang at the back instead?”

Jinseo shakes his head and takes the empty seat next to Alex. Maybe he’ll hang from the back when he’s more familiar with how to do his job. The jeepney ride was a rather uneventful one despite the chatter going on behind him, as Alex was eerily quiet, a huge contrast to his chatterbox self outside the wheel earlier. Jinseo notices the girl from earlier fidgeting at the back of her seat and wonders if she needs any help. He keeps an eye on them through the rearview mirror, especially when the other passengers leave and it’s just this young couple that’s left inside. He notices that the girl still looks uneasy, and he decides to listen in on their conversation.

“Julian,” the girl whispers so softly that Jinseo almost misses it. “I—I don’t know how I’m going to say this…”

The boy who is apparently named Julian sighs. “I already know, Chloe. Your mom already told me. You guys are migrating to London after this school year ends.”

Jinseo notices that his tone is robotic, almost as though he had rehearsed how he was going to react to this piece of information.

“I was going to tell you…”

“When?!” Julian shouts, and Jinseo is thankful there’s no one else in the jeepney with them. “When you’re about to leave?”

Jinseo peeks at them through the rearview mirror and sees that this Chloe is sobbing profusely while Julian’s facial expression is something unreadable. Julian’s hand hesitates before he pats her, whispering that it wasn’t her fault.

 _Ever heard of long distance relationships?_ Jinseo wants to ask but he stops himself before he says anything. Instead he accepts the payment of the passengers who just boarded, hoping that this young couple doesn’t make a scene.

“We can work something out, Chloe,” Julian says in between breaths that Jinseo wonders if Julian was assuring Chloe or himself.

Chloe shakes her head. “No, Julian. It’s unfair for me to make you hold on like this. I don’t want us to miss any opportunities just because we’re clinging onto something from the past. I don’t want us to regret anything. Let’s end this while the terms between us are still clear.”

Jinseo doesn’t know what Julian would have said had Chloe not shouted for the jeep to halt, despite it not being her stop yet.

He catches Julian’s eyes when they both look at the rearview mirror at the same time. Jinseo grimaces at the younger boy as he passes on several tissues from Alex’s tissue box.

“I guess this was goodbye, huh?”

 

 

 

 

**TUESDAY**

The following day, Jinseo was assigned to be Misha’s barker. Misha is every bit as chatty as Alex is, at least off the wheel, possibly even chattier.

“I swear,” he tells Jinseo. “Listen to the what the passengers talk about when they’re inside the jeep. You never know what sort of gossip you pick up! That is why Alex wasn’t talking to you yesterday. I heard you even handed one passenger some tissues after a breakup?”

“Yeah…” Jinseo nodded as he dipped his fishball in the bottle of sweet sauce.

“Misha, don’t be a bad influence to Jinseo,” Denis the street food vendor deadpans. “He and my temporary assistant Han Yan are only going to be with us for a month.”

“Shut up, Denis. You _live_ for the gossip Alex and I bring back here.” Misha snorts as he takes a stick of grilled intestine from Denis’ grill. “Anyway, I bet Jimbo—yes, that’s your new nickname—enjoyed himself yesterday!”

Jinseo just sighs as he throws away his now-finished fishball stick. Once Misha’s decided on a nickname for someone, there is no use arguing. It’s just going to prolong the issue.

“Fine,” Denis sighs as he hands Jinseo and Misha more sticks of fishball and grilled intestine for the trip. “You tell me what you guys hear this time. Alex is coming in a bit, so Han Yan and I will have some company.”

“Come on then, Jimbo!” Misha says as he pulls Jinseo after dipping the fishballs in several sauces.

After he had collected the payments and once he has boarded the jeep, Jinseo tries following Misha’s advice and listens to what’s going on. There’s just too much to hear and nothing interesting enough to catch his attention that he finds himself opting to stare out into space and thinking of his assignment for investigative journalism class due next week instead.

He is jolted out of whatever worries he has about his requirements when Misha nudges him in the ribs.

“Check them out,” Misha says, grinning as he points to two boys who just hailed their jeepney. “Don’t they look cute together?”

Jinseo checks out the boys as they enter the jeepney. They’re around the same height, but the one dressed in blue is light-skinned with tiny eyes that crinkle when he laughs at whatever the other boy is saying, and is thin enough to be blown by a strong gust of wind. The boy dressed in black has deeper brown eyes and bronzed skin, although he’s also thin, at least he doesn’t look like he’d be blown away. Misha’s right. They do look adorable together.

“Misha, please,” Jinseo says as he tries to hide his grin.

“Did you see the way the guy in blue was clinging to his boyfriend?”

“Let’s not assume things.”

“Trust me. My gaydar is flawless.”

Jinseo just shakes his head as he accepts the payment from the guy in black. “Vinsons, please. For two.”

He ignores the rest of the world as he remembers some random people from the past. He can’t help but wonder if he’ll see them again. Misha snaps him out of his reverie by nudging him again.

“What?” he whispers to the jeepney driver who is now directing his attention to the two boys from earlier. There are only a few people left, so they can hear whatever these two boys have to say perfectly.

“Listen,” they say at the same time; the one in blue chuckles while the one in black allows himself a small smile.

“You go first, Yuzuru,” the boy in black says.

The boy in blue—Yuzuru— sighs. “How do I say this?”

“Whatever it is, I’ll be here.”

“Here goes nothing,” Yuzuru says. “Well… My mom knows about us, Michael.”

The other boy’s grow wide. “What?”

“My mom knows about us… dating. And she’s fine with it.” Yuzuru says with a small smile on his lips.

Michael grimaces at those words, and Jinseo senses that there’s something wrong with this picture.

“My mom also knows about us,” Michael says, looking close to tears. “But she’s not happy about it.”

Yuzuru’s jaw drops at this. “I thought she likes me?” He frowns as he takes Michael’s hand.

Michael sighs as he looks outside. “That was when she thought we were just best friends, Yuzuru! Now that she knows, she wants us to break up. She doesn’t want an openly gay son, you know… and I’m her only son.”

Yuzuru shakes his head as he grips Michael’s hand even tighter than possible. “No! I won’t give up on us. We’re not hurting anyone. My mom will talk to your mom! Just… don’t let go.”

“It’s too late,” Michael says as he keeps his gaze outside. “My dad’s coming tomorrow and taking me with him to wherever he’ll be assigned. They already fixed my transfer papers, and I’m not allowed to tell anyone where I’m going. I’m pretty much a prisoner for life… or least they think I’ve got my shit figured out.”

“Michael”

“It’s no use, Yuzuru,” Michael says as he lets go of Yuzuru’s hand. “I love you, but this is the end of it. You should know it hurts more for me to be leaving you like this.”

Jinseo loathes to break the moment, but he shouts “VINSONS!” anyway, which jolts the two boys out of whatever world they were in and back to the present. They ignore the stares they get as they get off the jeepney. Jinseo and Misha simply exchange glances as they watch Yuzuru and Michael head for opposite directions, both wiping their eyes with the backs of their hands.

In the succeeding days they get Yuzuru as a passenger, alone or with some other friends, Jinseo wonders if Yuzuru’s permanently lost his soul to Michael as he takes in those empty eyes.

 

 

 

 

**WEDNESDAY**

Jinseo’s stops get farther and farther from the campus he’s serving. Today, he finds himself along the road where his own university is, and his driver for today is the one everyone calls “sleepy Taka.” Jinseo’s surprised Taka’s never gotten into an accident, since he seems to be half-asleep whether he’s driving or not. Jinseo curses his luck as he sees who just boarded the jeepney. _SHIT._ It’s Soyoun and Haejin, some friends from the school publication. Oh well, at least they know why he’s doing this and won’t jump to funny conclusions.

“Where to?” he asks as he tries to stop himself from laughing.

Once Haejin answers him, also trying to stop herself from laughing, he collects their money and let’s them in. He tries not to react as Soyoun shows Haejin a photo that she took of Jinseo yelling out the jeepney stops. She’s most likely going to tag him on Instagram later on. This is probably payback for last night’s incident, wherein Jinseo went grocery shopping and ended up paying at the counter where Soyoun was the cashier and Haejin was the bagger, and he tweeted about it the minute he got home.

He promises himself that he won’t eavesdrop on their conversation, but it’s hard. Considering that he’s hanging at the back of the jeepney, and the two of them are seated near him.

“Hey, Haejin, did you hear about Junehyoung?” Soyoung asks as she stows her phone in her bag.

Haejin’s laughter suddenly stops and her face goes sour. Uh-oh, looks like Jinseo’s high school classmate Junehyoung is still a sore topic to Haejin even if they parted ways four years ago.

“So? What about him?” Haejin says as she raises an eyebrow at Soyoun, and Jinseo finds himself tightening his grip on the rails as he leans a little closer to them.

“I heard he’s getting married to his girlfriend,” Soyoun says as though she’s talking about the weather.

Jinseo’s a little surprised. He was supposed to be one of Junehyoung’s closest friends, and he didn’t know that his friend wants to marry someone? He’s met Junehyoung’s new girlfriend twice. She’s pretty nice, but he finds her a bit too boring for his taste. It’s probably because a small part of him still ships Junehyoung with Haejin, but whatever makes his friend happy.

“What the actual fuck?” Haejin shouts, not caring who else was in the jeepney with them. After apologizing profusely to the people staring at her, she whispers, “Damn that motherfucking douche.”

“Why are you upset? You guys have broken up…” Soyoun says, frowning at Haejin.

 _Thank you, Soyoun. My thoughts exactly._ Jinseo thinks to himself as he pretends to not be eavesdropping.

“Funny you mentioned that. No breakup ever happened since we were never officially together,” Haejin says. “But Junehyoung and I still have lots of unfinished business. There’s still stuff we need to talk about.”

Soyoun sighs as she puts an arm around her best friend. “Now I’m confused, and I’m sure Jinseo here’s just as baffled.”

Despite silently agreeing with Soyoun, Jinseo says, “Leave me out of this, Soyoun! That’s her business.”

“Don’t pretend you weren’t listening, Jinseo!” Soyoun scoffs at him before she directs her attention back to Haejin.

Haejin sighs and Jinseo swears he can see the smoke coming out of her ears and nostrils. “Fine. I will tell everything once and for all. Oh and Jinseo, drop the act. I know you’re listening. Just… don’t spread this around.”

Jinseo chuckles as he rolls his eyes, while Haejin takes a deep breath.

“Junehyoung and I had a mutual understanding back in third year high school—we weren’t exclusively together, but we knew we liked each other. Things were fine between us, until some so-called friends of mine decided to go and tell him that I was two-timing him with Minseok Kim—you remember him, Soyoun—but that was never true! I didn’t even like Minseok that way! Then this girl—who turned out to be the one who liked Minseok—started spreading around shit that I stole Minseok from her.”

“What’s Minseok got to do with Junehyoung?” Soyoun asks, looking at Jinseo who, despite knowing the answer, shrugs at her for the sake of his role as a jeepney barker.

“Minseok was Junehyoung’s closest friend, who also happened to like me back then,” Haejin replies. “But I only liked Junehyoung. Minseok didn’t stand a chance. I thought almost everyone knew that.”

Jinseo remembers this. Both his friends liked the bubbly, talented, and pretty dancer during that required soiree back in high school. It is weird to be hearing about how these girls view his friends, almost as though he sees them with whole new eyes. He wonders if he wasn’t paying enough attention to how Minseok and Junehyoung were back then, given there was someone else he had his eyes on. But from what he remembers, Haejin had eyes for no one but the quiet, socially awkward Junehyoung, who was ignoring the world in favor of playing with his rubix cube. In fact, Jinseo remembers being grateful to Haejin for being the only girl to pay his friend any attention as he talked to one of her classmates.

Soyoun nods. “You were pretty devastated once Junehyoung just stopped talking to you and started ignoring you. But what happened with Minseok though after you rejected him?”

“Well, he also stopped talking to me, and I don’t really care about him, so I don’t know. But Junehyoung… Like everyone knows, he just disappeared from my life without a single word or goodbye. Like, he just stopped talking to me one day, even if everything was just fine between us the night before.”

Jinseo frowns. Junehyoung said that he and Haejin broke up amicably the day after Minseok told them that he also liked Haejin. So… which one of them was lying? He shakes his head as he listens on.

“... It’s been years since I last heard from him,” Haejin whispers that Jinseo almost misses it. “But he suddenly sent me a Facebook message last night. He said he was sorry for everything that happened, and for anything he’s done, since he apparently wants closure.” He notices Haejin making air quotes at “closure.”

“So what’s the problem?” Soyoun asks, looking at Jinseo for help, but he opts to ignore her in favor of collecting payment from the new passengers.

“Well I asked if we could meet face to face, so that we could talk about everything once and for all. Guess what he said?” Haejin laughs derisively, and scoffs before she continues. “The idiot wanted to talk online instead since he doesn’t have the time to come up here from the province where his campus is. Fuck him. If he wants closure, shouldn’t he be making the time and effort to go back to the city for at least one weekend so we could talk?

And now I hear he’s marrying someone else. Well, he can go to hell for all I care. If he doesn’t have the balls to talk to my face and tell me that it’s really over, where we went wrong, or if I even meant something to him at some point in his life, then he shouldn’t be committing himself to a serious relationship. Especially if it’s one that’s for life. If he’s really moved on, then why is Christ’s name is he still bothering me? Fuck him. He couldn’t even end things with me properly... and now he’s giving this new girl everything…?”

Soyoun says nothing as she pats a near-hysterical Haejin’s back. Jinseo hands them his handkerchief, knowing that he’ll get it back from them sooner or later. He’s got no idea who to believe now, his long-time friend or the girl his friend left broken.

“God damn it, Soyoun. I don’t understand… I don’t understand why I’m still affected like this. Junehyoung’s supposed to be part of the past…” Haejin says in between sobs.

“You haven’t completely let him go yet, Haejin,” Jinseo thinks as his friends get off at their stop.

 

 

 

 

**THURSDAY**

Jinseo’s route is the farthest he’s gone all week, and he’s stuck with an unusually grumpy Javier, who is normally as loud, funny, and nosy as both Misha and Alex. He looks as though he hasn’t eaten all day, and he only grunts when Jinseo asks if he’s alright. He promises to get the driver some headache medicine later before they both call it a night. Then again, not many people are heading to their last stop at this time of night, so it’s no wonder Javier doesn’t have any passengers. Just as Javier was about to start the jeep and head off with or without anyone, a man dressed in a suit suddenly gets in.

Jinseo’s eyes grow wide once he sees who it is. It’s Patrick Chan, the youngest, yet one of the best known lawyers in the country. He has won several high-profile cases ever since his career started and he has never looked back. Patrick Chan is practically a celebrity, and it doesn’t help that he’s a revered alumnus in both Jinseo’s former high school and his current university.

Patrick looks gloomy as he enters the jeepney. He hands Jinseo a bill, saying, “Keep the change, just make sure no one gets in.”

“Uh, sir, this is a jeepney, not a taxi,” Javier says. This is the first coherent sentence he’s said all evening.

“I don’t care. Just take me faraway from here.”

“As you wish,” Javier says, shrugging from the front seat. “Jimbo, close the doors and join him at the back. Make sure this dude doesn’t do anything funny.”

“Hey!” he hears Patrick weakly protest as he takes a seat across Patrick once the door is closed.

Jinseo decides to give up pretending he isn’t curious and openly stares at the man in front of him. He notices that Patrick’s suit looks wrinkled and his eyes are bloodshot, as though he hasn’t slept for weeks.

“Have you ever felt like you’re watching the world crumble in front of your eyes?” Patrick suddenly asks.

Jinseo frowns as he shakes his head, wondering what Patrick was talking about.

“I’m about to lose the most important thing in my life, and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. It’s too late for me to try getting it back. It’s my fault I’m about to lose it in the first place.”

Jinseo almost asks Patrick if he was drunk until he remembers the tabloids and the Facebook posts he’s been seeing. There are rumors of a certain power couple breaking up. Now that he’s put the clues together, he realizes that those rumors are all talking about Patrick Chan and his wife beauty queen/architect/philanthropist Yuna Kim, also known as the nation’s first love.

The press (and the whole country) has always considered them a match made in heaven, and if people looked at their photos, the couple always looked so happy and in love, despite not being very public about their relationship. Jinseo recalls a tiny part of his teenage heart dying when he heard that his first-ever crush Yuna Kim was getting married, just as all the girls in his class cried the day they heard Patrick Chan was no longer available. Despite this, he admits that seeing Patrick and Yuna together restores some of his faith in true love (no matter how cliched that sounds).

But these past few years have been different, as there have been several events Yuna has been attending alone, saying that Patrick’s been too busy for her. It made enough sense, considering that Patrick is part of the legal counsel in the ongoing controversial Priority Development Assistance Fund which involves some of the country’s lawmakers and lots more. But it was sad to hear anything about one of the country’s most loved couples ending things between them, and Jinseo is one of the many people hoping against hope that Patrick and Yuna will stick together.

“Well, I’m sure you’ve heard the rumors. Well, you’ll hear it from me. Yes, it’s true. Yuna filed for a divorce and it’s all my fault. After our third year of marriage, I thought everything was OK, and work got heavier and you heard about that Priority Development Assistance Fund case, right? So she said, I was ‘married to my work instead of her.’ I should have made time for her despite the case, and now I’m left with nothing. The case is heading nowhere, and the love of my life is leaving me. I did what I could to salvage what was left, but I ended up choosing my work over her. It’s really over now. It’s too late to fight for her. The law is on her side, I’m going to lose if I go against her in court.”

This is the first time Jinseo’s—or probably anyone outside Patrick’s immediate family—seen the fearless Patrick Chan cry. He moves over to sit next to him as he starts awkwardly patting the lawyer’s back. Jinseo doesn’t know what to say to him, but he catches a box of tissue Javier throws at him from the front of the bus and offers it to Patrick, who finishes the whole box by the time they reach the jeepney’s last stop.

“Don’t make the same mistakes I made, and make time for the people who really matter to you,” Patrick says as he gets off the jeepney. He scribbles something on two of his cards. “Here’s my card, should you need a lawyer someday. Consider it as thank you to both you and the driver for listening to me.”

Jinseo accepts the card with much thanks as he wishes Patrick a safe trip home. He looks at the back of the card and he is shocked by what he sees. Wow, Patrick must have really needed someone to listen to him…

 

  
**Atty. Patrick Lewis Wai-Kuan Chan  
Criminal defense lawyer**  
_Pro bono legal counsel_

Jinseo hands over the other card to Javier, who jokes about finally having a lawyer on call should something happen. As Javier finally reverts back to his chatty self, Jinseo watches Patrick’s departing back as he wonders how even those who seem to have it all can lose everything all at once.

 

 

 

 

**FRIDAY**

Jinseo finds himself being squished by a passenger sitting with him at the front seat of the jeepney next to driver Nobunari. Rather than listening to everyone’s conversations, Nobunari decided to turn on the radio to tune in to the news instead. After all, today was the day the court was going to announce the verdict for the case of the murder of the president’s sister that everyone’s been talking about for months. Although no one really misses her, it is still much-talked about given that she was also an actress and TV host who was notorious for her many scandalous revelations and failed relationships with several men.

The primary suspect for this case is Dr. Daisuke Takahashi, the cardiologist who was the last person to see her alive. According to the autopsy, the victim suffered from a misuse of drugs, some of which were the medicines he prescribed. Despite his own prescriptions stating otherwise, and testimonies from all over the world, the president’s family still firmly believes in Daisuke’s guilt.

“If I were the court, I’d say he’s innocent,” Nobunari, an avid fan of criminal TV shows says. “The government just needs a scapegoat to hide the fact that one of them did it.”

 

Jinseo snickers as Nobunari suddenly tries making himself look presentable when a woman and her daughter board the jeep.

“That lady in pink who just boarded the jeep is Mao, Daisuke Takahashi’s wife. The kid is probably their daughter… Probably picked her up before heading to the court… which happens to be part of our route.”

“To the Supreme Court, please!” Mao says as she hurriedly hands over the payment. Jinseo can feel the urgency in her voice and in her trembling hands as he gives her the change. He wonders how come Mao can still keep herself composed when she knows she’s hours away from hearing her husband’s fate.

It seems like everyone wants to know how this case goes, as no one gets off until they arrive in front of the Supreme Court. Everyone extends their well-wishes to Mao as she and her daughter get off. Nobunari doesn’t bother moving from his spot, and no one seems to be complaining anyway.

As they all tune in to the case, Jinseo hears several passengers praying for the Takahashi family. Nobunari is practically squeezing the life out of his hand, muttering about his young daughter Kanako. Jinseo finds himself joining the prayers and offering support to Nobunari, as he watches the doors of the court.

 

**_“This court finds the accused, Daisuke Takahashi, guilty of the murder of..."_ **

Everyone in the jeepney gasps and stares at each other. Passengers start crying as Nobunari shouts “FUCK THE JUSTICE SYSTEM!”

Jinseo’s attention returns to the court doors that suddenly fly open. Daisuke Takahashi walks out in handcuffs with an air of dignity, despite his eyes looking empty and seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him. He is being escorted to the vehicle that will take him to his death, as he has been sentenced to the death penalty. Despite everyone wanting his attention, Daisuke’s eyes are focused on one person, his wife who is holding on to him, crying as she begs anyone who will listen to reconsider. Jinseo watches as she practically screams as they’re forcefully separated. Mao thrashes in the policemen’s arms as Daisuke calmly steps into the vehicle.

Jinseo finds himself joining everyone else chanting “JUSTICE FOR DAISUKE” outside the Supreme Court for the rest of the night, and he has now included in his prayers peace for Daisuke’s wife Mao. He knows she won’t find it any time soon, but he hopes her daughter will be enough reason for Mao to keep fighting.

 

 

 

 

**SATURDAY**

Despite not having any classes on Saturdays, Jinseo still has to do barker duty. He finds himself enjoying barker duty on weekends since he gets to see several interesting characters besides students. He spies a couple boarding, although he notices that the affection is coming solely from the woman.

Jinseo can barely hear them at first, but then he manages to catch on to what they’re talking about sooner or later as he watches their expressions through the rearview mirror as passengers got off at different stops until it was this young couple left.

“When were you going to tell me the truth, Chris?” the woman asks, as she raises an eyebrow.

“Tell you what?” the man asks, but the way he fidgeted told Jinseo that he knew what the woman was talking about.

“For someone whose vocation requires you to go against sin, you’ve sure committed a lot of them,” the woman continues. “You could have said you were going to be a priest from the start, instead of leading me on, making me hope…”

Chris sighs as he looks out the window. “Melissa, I wasn’t allowed to tell anyone I was going to be a priest. This is our trial period outside the seminary, to see if this was what we really wanted. It was supposed to be easy, teach here, inspire children, and move on. But you had to come in and make things complicated.”

“So it’s my fault for loving you?”

“No. I fell in love with you too, Melissa…”

“But that’s not enough for you to leave the seminary, right?”

“I don’t know what this is. It could just be a moment of vulnerability, or a moment of weakness. What if we don’t work out?”

“So you’re entering the seminary just because you don’t want any regrets?”

“I know that there might be a point that I will regret not choosing you, but God’s calling me. I can’t say no. I… I’m sorry.”

Melissa shakes her head as she watches Chris get off at the next stop, and she doesn’t even shed a single tear despite muttering all sorts of things, “I knew it” being the most prominent. Jinseo wonders if she’s cried one too many times, or if it’s because she lost to an entity more powerful than any man or woman alive.

 

 

 

 

**SUNDAY**

Sunday is supposed to be a rest day for Jinseo, in terms of both school and community service, but he ends up doing barker duty anyway as the usual barker at the jeepney terminal near his house sounded like he was losing his voice. He recognizes their elderly neighbor Miss Kostner, as she gets off at a certain alleyway near where Jinseo intends to get off. He notices Miss Kostner has difficulty walking, so he decides to help her get off.

“Young man, can you keep me company?” she asks just as Jinseo is about to hop on the jeepney.

“Uh…”

He doesn’t have anything better to do, and he can always drop by his intended stop later on. Although Miss Kostner has been their neighbor ever since he was born, he doesn’t know much about the grumpy old lady next door besides being Italian.

“Sure, Miss Kostner,” he says. “As long as you know where we’re going.”

Miss Kostner clings onto his arm as she tells him stories about her youth. About how she grew up in Italy, how she was once an Olympic figure skater who traveled the world, and how she gave it all up once she got married and settled down. Most of her children and grandchildren are all over the world, leaving her here as she wanted.

“This is where the most important parts of my life happened, despite not being born here,” she says when Jinseo asks why she chose to stay. “This is also where I fell in love, got married, raised my children, and I’d like to die here too.”

“How about your husband?” Jinseo asks, realizing that he’s never heard of this old lady’s husband despite being long-time neighbors.

“We haven’t been living under the same roof for a while, but we see each other every weekend. In fact, I’m on my way to see him right now. I’ll just pick up something for him at first.”

Jinseo frowns at this odd arrangement, as yhey enter a hole-in-the-wall flower shop. He has a feeling he knows where they’re headed next. He checks his wallet to see if he can afford the stargazer lilies here, as he can’t afford to pay for a bouquet of white orchids like Miss Kostner is buying.

“I’ll pay for that bouquet for you,” Miss Kostner says as she eyes his bouquet of pink stargazer lilies. Jinseo is about to protest, but she says, “Consider that as my way of saying thank you for accompanying this old lady despite having other things to do.”

Jinseo smiles as he waits for the old lady to pay for their purchases. Looks like his gut feeling was right. They are headed for the same place, and she even paid for his flowers. He promises himself to see to it this old lady gets home safe, and to at least come see her on weekends to get to know her better.

“I’d like you to meet my husband,” Miss Kostner says once they stop in front of a family mausoleum.

“Are you sure? I don’t want to intrude,” Jinseo says, hesitating as he lingers at the gates.

“Nonsense,” Miss Kostner says as she gestures for him to join her inside. “I want my husband to meet the nice boy who helped me get here safe.”

 

**_Evgeni Plushenko_ **  
**_November 3, 1923 - August 28, 2012_**  
**_"I don't want to talk about the future or try to outguess the future,_ **  
**_I just want people to remember me."_ **

Jinseo offers prayers for the old man before he decides to leave the old couple alone. He’ll come back for Miss Kostner in an hour, but first he has someone to visit as well.

As he climbs up the hill, Jinseo realizes it’s been a while since he last saw her. The last time was during the burial, which still burns at the back of his mind, no matter how hard he tries to forget everything. He’s given himself some time to heal, but apparently, he needs some more time as the memory of everything is still too fresh for him to let go of.

The two of them were just walking along the streets, laughing and celebrating the fact that they’ve ended their freshman year in college in the dean’s list. He’s liked her since the day they first met, and he was planning to confess to her that day after they had dinner. Just as they were walking along the pedestrian lane, a truck suddenly appeared. Jinseo couldn’t remember what happened after she screamed his name and pushed him aside, but he only regained his senses as he woke up on a hospital bed with his parents and some doctors hovering over him.

He asked about her, the girl he loved who saved his life, but his parents said nothing as they shook their heads at him. And he heard that the truck driver who ran them over escaped, making things even worse. Jinseo would have thrashed as he cried, had he not suffered a wound in the head and a broken arm. He was thankful that he didn’t have to deliver a eulogy at the day of the burial, since her mother’s and her best friend’s revelations of “She liked you a lot, Jinseo. She just didn’t know if she had a chance,” were more than enough to break him.

“I still miss you, you know?” Jinseo whispers as he puts down the bouquet of stargazers at her tombstone. “I don’t know if I’ll stop missing you… I’m still sorry I didn’t confess any sooner.”

As Jinseo feels the wind blow against his face, he wonders how all Julian, Yuzuru, Haejin, Patrick, Mao, Melissa, and Miss Kostner will all manage to live after heartbreak, and if any of them will be able to get over the pain of losing someone who meant everything to them.

It’s easy to fall in love; it’s difficult to love. The most difficult is to lose love and try to live.

Maybe someday they’ll all be able to live without any pain, but for now, Jinseo chooses to dwell in his memories.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

_Alaala'y bumabalik_  
_Mga panahong nasasabik_  
_Sukdulang mukha mo ay laging nasa panaginip_  
_Bakit biglang pinagpalit_  
_Pagsasamahan tila nawaglit_  
_Ang dating walang hanggan_  
_Nagkaroon ng katapusan_

-30-

**Author's Note:**

> \- The fic was inspired by the songs [Jeepney](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcSuBWHffgY&feature=kp) by Sponge Cola and [Magbalik](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2G5s-FkqH3Y) by Callalily  
> \- Not identifying Jinseo’s dead love interest was intentional, as I don’t know which girl I ship him with ~~#Seora5ever~~  
>  \- Dedicated to Team Yelo Bear, Yoonmi, Yuki, and Team Mod. You all know what state of mind I was in when the Tagalog version was written  
> \- One of those stories is my own. It’s been years since it happened, but it still hurts to write about it.  
> \- Many thanks to Bruno, my forever beta, and to Procopio, for helping me identify her university’s jeepney stops  
> -crossposted to livejournal


End file.
